Closing the door on my yesterdays,

 tomorrow looked on in pride

 

Setting the lock on the future and past

 —in isolation they both cried

 

A Savior instant, the moment supreme,

 as the now both comes and goes

 

All memory forsaken in times broken dreams

  —as eternal, the present flows

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2018)

 

To hurt…

 just to know I can feel

 

To bleed…

 just to know I’m alive

 

The wounds of my fathers

 those never to heal

 

In remembrance

 —the past never dies

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2018)

Is the truth even electable

   redemption now a sin

 

The confessional a voting booth

  —where liars dwell within

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

“Commercially Successful”

   —the metaphysical oxymoron

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

My level of concern

  goes only so deep

 

I care only to there

  in meters or feet

 

Beyond that depth

  lies a hidden zone

 

Where beneath the caring

  is what’s really known

 

In my efforts to hide

  from the surface again

 

My words become sheltered

  immune from the pain

 

Below its demeanor

  I now call out to you

 

From that place that I wander

  —and keep out of view

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

A highway of regret…

 an avenue of denial

 

A boulevard of hopes and dreams

 where footsteps have defiled

 

A thoroughfare of wanton time

 each choice a dead end road

 

In fated plundered wanderlust

 —dark alleyways of stone

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2018)

The nursery, a womb

   where fantasy begins

 

The clay, the permission

  for the sculptor to sin

 

The keyboard, the staircase

  to a heavenly score

 

The day, once forsaken

   —its daydream records

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

Did you waste your life

  just making money

 

Did you eat the bread

  and not the honey

 

Did you sell your soul

  as your children watched

 

Was your heart left cold

  in a tinderbox

 

Were your excuses rich

  and your reasons poor

 

Did you wake up full

  and still ask for more

 

Were your blessings shunned

  as you scratched and clawed

 

Saying no harm done

  “I never broke the law”

 

Were you teeth all straightened

  and your motives bent

 

Were your eyes detached

  from what heaven sent

 

Were your memories lost

  in some dead refrain

 

As a lonely footnote

  to another’s name

 

If you had one chance

  to re-right these wrongs

 

Would you hide in silence

  or break out in song

 

With your soul imprisoned

  the choice is clear

 

All joy awaits

 —redemption near

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

The light of remembrance

  the will’s DNA

 

Entombed by dementia

 —forever in shade

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)

The jaws sing

As the drip, drip, drip,

Of the petroleum chorus

Dances across

The inverted aluminum

And the hissing starts

And the hissing stays

Its smell a warning

A final omen

Like the last rose

Of summer

Or the fragrance she wore

For that final goodbye

The teeth tear inward

Like the regret for today

And the regret for yesterday

And the lament for tomorrow

Its promise broken

And your khakis red

And baptized

A stigmata

To self infliction

As the music plays constant

And the rushing you feel

An emptying of sorrow

Onto the crushed ceiling

Of a dream in reverse

Of all life in reverse

Until two arms grab you

And you fall from the sky

And you fall from the sky

Waiting

For the ground

To coronate the outcome

And for one more answer

To a ‘why’ unquestioned

And to love you one more time

But the lights are now dim

And the voices muffled

As an organ can be heard

And store bought flowers smelled

And an old woman cries…

As a young woman cries…

And a stranger pronounces

What you feared the most

They didn’t know you

And couldn’t know you

The exit sign flashing

But there is no door

“There Is No Door”

  —and then the music stops

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)